Inside Baseball

Monsieur SauveurThe Dodgers have found a winning edge in French Canadian closerEric Gagne

Before this season Dodgers righthander Eric Gagne was a winningpitcher in name only--his surname is a form of the French verbgagner, to win. Though he seemed nominally destined for successon the mound, the Montreal native had few W's when he reportedto spring training. Gagne spent the last three seasons yo-yoingbetween the Los Angeles rotation and the minors, puttingtogether an 11-14 record with a 4.61 ERA in 48 big league startsand 10 relief appearances, hardly the kind of stats expected ofa young power pitcher coveted by other teams in trade talks withthe Dodgers.

Gagne hasn't added any more victories to his record thisseason--he was 0-0 through Sunday--but he has had a hand in amajority of the Dodgers' wins. In a little more than two monthsthe 26-year-old converted starter has become one of the NationalLeague's most dominating closers. Gagne led the majors with 21saves and had a 1.39 ERA. He'd blown just one save opportunity,and opponents were hitting a meager .150 against him.

Forget Gagne--Eric Sauveur (French for saver) might be moreappropriate this season. "When I came to spring training, Ididn't have a job, and I didn't know if I'd get traded," saysGagne, whose first language is French and who didn't speakEnglish fluently until after he signed with the Dodgers as anundrafted free agent in 1995. "I just wanted to do something soI could stay on the team."

After closer Jeff Shaw retired, the Dodgers spent the off-seasontrying to trade for a replacement. They made unsuccessful runsat the Angels' Troy Percival and the Blue Jays' Billy Koch, whomToronto instead traded to the A's. Faced with a surplus ofstarters in spring training, manager Jim Tracy shifted Gagne tothe bullpen and announced that Gagne and righthanders GiovanniCarrara and Paul Quantrill would form a committee of closers.

It was a logical move, because last season Gagne's fastball wasregularly clocked at 94 mph; now he's reaching 97. He creditsthat jump to eight pounds of muscle he added through winterworkouts in Montreal with some friends who are hockey players,and to the new high-octane approach he brings to the bullpen.

He had struck out 44 hitters and walked four in 32 1/3 innings,and it's not only his fastball that makes him effective. His keypitch right now is a changeup that dives toward the dirt as itnears the plate. That sinking action and the speed (87 mph) withwhich he throws it make the pitch devastating. "Hitters mightsee a splitter or a slider that hard, but they never see astraight change that hard," says catcher Paul Lo Duca. Adding toGagne's intimidating presence is his appearance: goggle-thickglasses and a half-goatee that Lo Duca calls a "Chia chin."

It didn't take long for Tracy to disband his committee ofclosers. On April 11 against the Giants at Pac Bell Park, Gagneentered the game in the ninth inning with the Dodgers leading bya run. He quickly got himself into a jam, putting runners onfirst and third with one out. Tracy visited the mound and toldGagne, "I should bring in [lefthander Jesse] Orosco, but I'mnot. It's your game."

Gagne struck out the next batter and got the final out on a flyto center. The Dodgers had a new closer. "[Tracy] showed a lotof confidence in me," Gagne says. "When he walked off thatmound, that was the turning point of my career."

Streaking Marlin Luis CastilloKing of the NL Leadoff Hitters

When he has played well--whether it's on the field or in a cardgame--Marlins second baseman Luis Castillo likes to strut aroundthe clubhouse and call himself the King. He's had severalself-coronations lately. Castillo had a 25-game hitting streakthrough Sunday, the longest in the majors this season, and hehas quietly developed into the National League's most dangerousleadoff hitter. He led the league with 21 stolen bases, and his.328 average ranked seventh.

Castillo, a 26-year-old switch-hitter from San Pedro de Macoris,in the Dominican Republic, appeared to be a rising star twoyears ago, when he hit .334 and stole a major-league-high 62bases. He slipped badly last season, however, batting .263 with33 steals. The King's problem, believe it or not, wasconfidence--Castillo would sink into a funk with every minormiscue or slump. "I don't think he was cognizant of how good hewas," says former Marlins manager John Boles, who's now a senioradviser to baseball operations for the Dodgers.

In his fourth full season Castillo's regal bearing in theclubhouse (he's still King of the card games) is finally backedby self-assuredness on the field. With his blazing speed as acatalyst--Castillo led the National League with 23 infieldhits--Florida had the fifth-highest scoring offense in theleague (4.7 runs per game) at week's end. "We're riding thewave," said leftfielder Kevin Millar. "With confidence, Luisturns into Godzilla."

Bonds at Yankee StadiumA Titanic Shot--Then a Letdown

At a January awards dinner in New York City, Barry Bonds stoodon the dais and told Yankees manager Joe Torre how much he waslooking forward to facing the Yankees and Roger Clemens in theirfirst interleague meeting. "Joe," Bonds said to Torre, "makesure he's pitching in that series."

Bonds, who set foot in the House that Ruth Built for the firsttime last Friday, got his wish on Sunday afternoon, but likemany prizefights the showdown didn't live up to the hype.Clemens walked Bonds three times, twice intentionally. Bondsalso drew an intentional pass from reliever Steve Karsay with arunner on first and two out in the ninth. (The crowd booed afterevery walk.) In the third inning, however, Clemens did followthrough on a promise he had made earlier in the week to"introduce myself real quick" to Bonds: He plunked the sluggeron the elbow guard he wears on his right arm.

The Clemens-Bonds matchup may have been anticlimactic, but threethrilling games were played before packed houses. Before theseries opener, a 2-1 win for New York on Friday night, Bondstoured Monument Park behind the outfield fence, and then he went2 for 3 against righthander Mike Mussina. But the highlight ofthe weekend came the next day, when Bonds launched a majestic385-foot three-run homer--the 588th of his career--that landed16 rows up in the upper deck in rightfield to help the Giantswin 4-3. "I think anybody would feel good about that," he saidafter the game. "The fans wanted to see what I did in the firstinning. After that, they wanted me out every time."

COLOR PHOTO: JOHN CORDES/ICON SPORTS MEDIA In his first season as a reliever Gagne was leading the majors with 21 saves through Sunday.COLOR PHOTO: CHUCK SOLOMON The speedy Castillo is igniting the Marlins' offense now that his confidence is back.

Interleague Imbalance

Interleague play has its moments--Curt Schilling outduelingPedro Martinez at Fenway Park last Saturday, the White Soxvisiting Wrigley this weekend--but it also threatens to wreakhavoc on the playoff races when teams vying for a wild-card spotplay radically different schedules. "If you don't play the samepeople, how do you know who's really the best team?" asks Giantsmanager Dusty Baker. "It's not fair to everybody."

To illustrate Baker's point, here's how the interleague calendarwill affect the teams who at week's end were National Leaguedivision leaders or were within six games of the wild card. (Witha few exceptions, the NL West plays the AL East, the NL Centralplays the AL West, and the NL East plays the AL Central.)

INTERLEAGUE OPPONENTS'TEAM COMBINED WIN PCT. SCHEDULE QUIRKS

Diamondbacks .505 Play Red Sox, Yankees and Indians; don't get a shot at woeful Devil RaysDodgers .498 Avoid Yankees; have two series with natural rival Angels insteadGiants .477 Don't have to play Red Sox but get twoseries against vaunted A's rotationReds .531 Skip rival Indians to play full AL Westschedule; Junior returns to SafecoCardinals .538 Face Mariners and Angels, but catch a break against hapless RoyalsBraves .494 Chance to slip in standings with two series against red-hot Red SoxMets .518 Play two intense series against Yankees;miss chance to relax against TigersExpos .431 Six games against weak Blue Jays, none against an AL team with winning recordMarlins .435 Luck of the draw: play Devil Rays,Royals and Tigers 12 times total